THE CRAFT GUILDS OF FRANCE.
already borrowed, inasmuch as
that Freemasonry, in
also lets the
its
three
it is
first
i;9
probable, according to a mass of authorities and traditions,
is of French origin."
Besuchet then
or symbolic degi-ees,
matter drop and nowhere have I met with any serious attempt to examine the
France from a Masonic point of view.
;
craft guilds of
Although French historians could undoubtedly have made out a good and plausible case if
so, it is not by any means probable that their theory would have been
they had wished to do
The
tmassailable.
object of this
and the next chapters
is to
place the
known facts
fairly before
the reader; to trace the craft guilds of France (as nearly as may be) from their infancy to
their final abolition by the States General during the first Eevolution and to record aU that
;
I have been able to learn with reference to the Companionage.
In any attempt to follow the
rise
and progress of the
craft guilds of France, it is constantly
comparatively recent times, France never was a homoto one portion of that country might require
modifications before being applicable to another.
Ctesar certainly found it divided
necessary to bear in
geneous
many
mind
that, until
and that a theory relating
state,
three very distinct nationalities, which he distinguished as Gallia Belgica, Gallia
The Aquitani, it is supposed, were of African
Aquitania, and Gallia Propria or Celtica.
and came from Spain the Belgse were Teutons, and their language and customs were
origin,
into
;
Gothic; and the Celts (called by the Eomans Galli) were the original inhabitants, whose
descendants are now found in Galicia and Brittany.
There can be no doubt that the manners
and customs
them
of these races were very distinct,
all alike.
Later on
we
find the
and even Eoman
civilisation failed to affect
Celts themselves divided into three classes
Galli
:
Comati, because they wore long hair; Galli Braccati, because they donned breeches; and
Galli Togati, because they had adopted the Eoman toga.
But that Eoman civilisation did
obtain a very deep and lasting hold on all classes, is evident from the fact, that in spite of
the ultimate subjugation of the country by the German tribes, all the dialects and languages
at different times and places known and used, have merged into a derivative of
the Latin tongue, and that few traces of them remain except in Brittany.
Nor is this
of recent date a few Gothic chronicles exist of the time of the Carlovingian dynasty but
even then the idiom of the people must have been Eoman, as immediately afterwards we find
which were
:
;
the Gothic vernacular has disappeared, and see France broadly divided into Langue d'Oc and
—
Langue d'Oui, both being corruptions of the Latin the one bearing a greater affinity to
the Spanish, and the other to the French of the present day.
Although the Lanr/ue d'Oui
as is natural, seeing that it was the idiom of Paris and the court, yet the
ultimately conquered,
distinction
was maintained
till
well within the sixteenth century, and municipal documents of
the previous century were in the south of France
The
colonies of the Greeks
still
on the Mediterranean
written in the Proven9al tongue.
coast, for instance, Marseilles,
600
B.C.,
cannot be quite excluded from consideration in viewing the subsequent influence of political
events on the institutions of Gaul.
Eoman
civilisation
had obtained a firm footing throughout the country
for ages before the
Constantino the Great (306-336) divided it into seventeen
provinces, six of which were consular, and eleven under presidents who resided in the capital
first
invasions of the barbarians.
cities.
Many
districts
were then and previously celebrated for the very products which now
and at the present day splendid ruins still testify to the
constitute their staple industries
opulence of their citizens.
;